Phosphine-Functionalized Syndiotactic Polystyrenes: Synthesis and Application to Immobilization of Transition Metal Nanoparticle Catalysts

The precise control of monomer sequence and stereochemistry in copolymerization is of much interest and importance for the synthesis of high performance materials, but studies toward this goal have met with only limited success to date. The coordination polymerization of diphenylphosphinostyrene (p-StPPh(2) and o-StPPh(2)) and its copolymerization with styrene (St) by (C5Me4SiMe3)Sc(CH2C6H4NMe2-o)(2) have been achieved for the first time to afford a new series of phosphine functionalized syndiotactic polystyrene. By the design of the polymer structure, the copolymer of o-StPPh(2) and St (poly(o-StPPh(2)-alt-St)-b-sPS) containing o-StPPh(2) and St atactic alternating copolymer block and syndiotactic polystyrene block (sPS) showed excellent thermal stability and chemical resistance. The simple combination of the triphenylphosphine and syndiotactic polystyrene realized the stable immobilization of metal nanoparticles to afford highly robust metal@poly(o-StPPh(2)-alt-St)-b-sPS nanocatalysts at high temperature and various atmospheres. The Cu@poly(o-StPPh(2)-alt-St)-b-sPS catalyst can serve as a highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of quinoline derivatives by acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling of o-aminobenzylalcohol with ketones.

Automated summary

This study successfully achieved the coordination polymerization of diphenylphosphinostyrene and its copolymerization with styrene, resulting in a new series of phosphine functionalized syndiotactic polystyrene with excellent thermal stability and chemical resistance. The combination of triphenylphosphine and syndiotactic polystyrene allowed for the stable immobilization of metal nanoparticles to form highly robust nanocatalysts, showing high efficiency as a heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of quinoline derivatives.